Business Secretary John Hutton could make himself "one of the most popular" ministers if he stops the closure of 2,500 post offices, the Tories say.

The Conservatives are hoping to put the controversial plans to a vote of MPs during a debate against the measure.

Shadow business secretary Alan Duncan said 90 Labour MPs, including seven Cabinet ministers, had campaigned against the closures.

Look, it's really simple: the Post Office cannot keep losing money at the rate at which it is doing and survive. It has been heavily hit by the growth of email and IT in general. However, it has also been badly hit by the continuous ratchet of competition laws imposed by the EU.

Tory Tim Loughton accused the Post Office of just concentrating on its own "survival".

What? What the fuck? Are you listening to yourself, Loughton, you fuckwit? Of course the Post Office is concentrating on its own survival; isn't that what you are doing too? That might be the stupidest fucking remark, about anything, that I have heard in ages.

"They have stuck two fingers up at pensioners, at local business, the community at which the Post Office forms the heart...and they have the temerity to call themselves the 'People's Post Office'.

"This whole consultation has been about blackmail and bullying - it's a form of appeasement."

What the fucking hell are you talking about, you prat? Look, the Post Office is losing millions of pounds every year; this cannot continue. So how are they supposed to survive if they don't cut costs?

Well, the government could subsidise the company, couldn't it? After all, it already has.

When the programme for post office closures was announced in 2006, ministers pointed out that the government had invested £2bn in the network since 1997 and would commit an extra £1.7bn until 2011.

There's something missing from this story: what could it be? Oh yes, I know; the thing that is missing is any mention, whatsoever, of the EU.

There is, in particular, no mention of the fact that the government had to go and beg the EU to be allowed to give that £1.7 billion to the Post Office, and the reason that they have only committed until 2011 is because that was only as long as the EU would allow. Whether the EU will extend this favour beyond 2011 is anyone's guess. But, if they do not, the Post Office is going to be in real trouble.

But both the Tories and Labour are absolutely desperate not to broadcast the fact that it is the EU that is, effectively, causing the closure of the Post Offices. In this case, it makes little difference whether you think that subsidising the Post Office is a good idea or not: what matters is that all of the Big Three are desperately trying to stop the people of this country from finding out about the EU's involvement in this mess. That is because all of the three main parties are EUphiles and they know that they are already struggling against an increasingly EUsceptic public.

The Tories know full well that they can debate these Post Office closures as much as they like but, in practice, they can do less than fuck all about them.

9 comments:

As much as we (UKIP) leaflet about it and tell everybody we meet that it is, in the end, the direct result of an EU directive, the fact is that unless the MSM broadcast the truth of the matter, the Tories can get away with this EUsceptic bollocks ad infinitum.

There is no need for local post offices. They are an anachronism, a chimera in the minds of people who believe we should all live in the 1950's. All that crap about pensioners is, well, crap. Working a computer is no more difficult than working the central heating system. You can do everything on line including printing your own stamps. Sure, its a hassle if you live in the sticks, and want to send a parcel, but I see no reason why the post office shouldn't offer a collection service like other carriers. It's the same with phone boxes, which are now really only used as urinals, which of course is what they were always used for anyway. I bet the same people who moan about post offices miss the AA man in jodphurs who saluted you and the corner shop that sold you out of date butter. Get real or fuck off.

I knew old Tim Laughton in London, many years ago, before he was famous. Nice man, shame about becoming an MP.

The Po thing is easy to solve. If the guvmint bans post offices, then it's easy there days with good comms and cheap printing, to set up a rival private service for o-o-t places. it may cost a bit more initially but it could keep the little shops going that often harbout Post Offices. We can print "stamps", say with the head of Adam Smish or Chris Tame on them. The facevalue pays for whoever will drive the stuff about to the next sorting place. it will all take a bit longet initially but we can send stuff. God knows what to do about the Blauscheinen for cars etc. Have to use the internet I guess. DD

The Post Offices in small villages have been ran at a subsidised loss for fucking years.

Victoria Wood (that weel kent economist) was on the telly the day stating that village post offices must be ran at a loss because wee Effie in the cul-de-sac needs to be able to buy stamps 24/7

I wonder if la Wood pays by Direct Debit or nips to the local high street and pays the extra fiver...

A "village" or indeed a local post office is now an anachronism for a state sponsored place to pay bills. Very few embraced a very trapped market when supermarkets centred themselves. Well fuck them then.

All we hear is big business bad, small business good. Tell you what, it was small businesses who were on the outside of the minimum wage, forget for a moment the downside of that policy, and note this, it was small shopkeepers who (and to an extent still is) paid tuppence ha'penny to people for working for them. It's just loony cunts who think Tesco or KFC paid 'slave' wages.

~The length of my rant tells you I am biased, but for fucks sake, the PO argument is simply the result of basic economy of scale, I'd not only close them, I'd make the owners convert them for use as kebab shops!

I think if you look deeper, the cause of the mess is the contract that the gvmnt, via the post office, imposes on sub-postmasters. If this was more flexible wrt what services they provided, opening hours, and the like, village post offices would be perfectly viable, either as part-time pension-supplementing earners, or as one of several income streams for a post office / pub / grocers / farmshop outlet such as IIRC you find in rural ireland. Either way villagers could buy stamps and post parcels without having to go into town.